For Glee Bully Max Adler’s Solo, Jane Lynch Suggests “I Feel Pretty”

Max Adler plays Dave Karofsky, a meat-headed football player, on the hit show Glee, and until recently, he was most famous for his persistent bullying and body-checking—as well as his ability to accurately toss skin-staining Slushies in the chests and eyes of the members of the Glee Club. Everyone knows that only losers bully, so I assumed Karofsky was just another cruel and rotten jock. Then, a couple weeks back, his intimidation tactics used against gay hero Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) took a fresh turn—one that culminated not in a face plant, but in a face mash, ringing the old I-hate-you-because-I’m-like-you, Ted Haggard/Larry Craig/Insert Your Favorite Grotesque Outspoken Republican Closet-Case Homophobe Here bells.

Since things only promise to heat up in tonight’s episode “Furt”, and since I’ve made something of a specialty out of grilling straight male Glee cast members about kissing boys, I felt obligated to give Max a call and talk technique, tongue, and what it’s like to play a character so unlike his sweet mensch-y self.Brett Berk: I’m sure you’ve been inundated with requests from reporters since the big gay kiss happened. And I want to ask about your 2,635 percent increase in Internet popularity this week, but first things first: is Chris Colfer a good kisser?

Max Adler: Everyone’s asking me, Are his lips soft? Is he delicate? Was there tongue? Was there saliva? The answer is: I didn’t mind at all. He was fine. It wasn’t really too long of a kiss, although there were quite a few takes—there were different angles the camera had to get: him, me, the master shot—so I had to do it multiple times. But, you know, you’re playing a scene, you’re characters. So you kind of get wrapped up in it and do it, and yeah. It was fun.

My sense from talking to some of the other cast members is that you’re nothing like your character. You’ve even done a very sweet It Gets Better video for the anti-bullying, pro-L.G.B.T. youth organization the Trevor Project.

It was really cool. It’s an honor. Dan Savage [one of the founders of the project] e-mailed me yesterday. I guess the video went out [last] Tuesday—I shot it in D.C. on Monday—and I think I had like 50,000 hits in a day or two. It was like the No. 1 nonprofit YouTube of the week. It was really cool for something like that to really hit that many people and know people are listening, because that was the whole goal.

What’s it like to play someone who is so cruel, tortured, and relentless? You seem like such a nice guy.

It’s actually awesome. The whole dream of acting is to be that, to be nothing like your character. The last thing I want is for someone to say I always play myself—that I have no range. So for people to just connect to that, to the role of this relentless, tormented bully, and then to see me for the fact that I’m not like him, it’s really cool. That’s kind of why I got into acting. To play and be somebody I’m not for a few hours a day. It’s a nice little escape from real life.

From what I understand, you all rarely know very much in advance what’s going to be happening on the show plot-wise. Tell me a little about how you found out about this twist.

We are so in the dark, and it’s driving all of us crazy. We’ve almost become, like, fans of the show and the story lines, and I’m like, What’s going to happen to him? What’s going on? We really don’t know. We just find out a few days before we actually shoot it.

So, the way I found out, there was no talk about it from anybody, I was not notified or asked; nothing was cleared. It was, basically, before you shoot they bring everybody their scripts—and you read it and shoot it. It was delivered like any other script. And I’m just reading through it like any other, and all of a sudden, this happens! The only warning I had was that I saw Ryan at the premiere for season two, and he said they’d just written some really cool stuff for me for Episode 6. But I had no idea what that meant. I was honored that they were writing for me. But I think this is awesome. I mean, this is right at the peak of all this horrible bullying stuff, and it’s exactly what is happening right now, and then to take the stand and make him gay and tormented and tortured himself—it’s just amazing.

When I first got cast, and I had to play this role, I realized that you don’t bully out of just nothing. There’s something behind it. So I did kind of play around with it in terms of reasons: if he’s jealous that they’re in Glee Club and he wants to be in Glee Club, or perhaps the fact that he was gay. It had to come from somewhere. So now . . . he has validated that, which was really smart on the writers’ part.

I hear through the Glee grapevine that this isn’t going to be just a one-off plot point, but a real story arc. How is it going to progress?

I don’t know, I really don’t. I’m telling you, I wish I did. There are rumors, but they go from my joining the Glee Club to hurting myself to hurting someone else. Now people are talking about the whole Karofsky [being Kurt’s] boyfriend thing, but Kurt’s terrified of me, so I don’t know. All I know is that you should stay tuned for this week’s episode: there are a couple scenes for Karofsky this week, and the situation comes to a head and gets a little more serious than it’s been. But I can’t tell you exactly how.

Is he going to get in touch with his inner show-queen and get to sing or dance?

[Laughs.] There’s a chance for anything. Absolutely. I wouldn’t rule that out. There’s been no confirmation of anything.

Maybe he could do Dianna Ross’s “I’m Coming Out” or Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” or some other disco classic.

Jane Lynch said how funny it would be if I sang “I Feel Pretty” like, in my room, with the whole thing, the eyelashes and the brushes. I’m down for anything. I’ve wanted to work with Ryan Murphy before I even moved out here [to L.A.] for acting. And to have him writing for me, and to be on the show If I have to sing, I’m down with singing. If I have to kiss a guy, I’ll kiss a guy. It’s just a great show, and I’m down to play and have fun.

And what else is happening for Max Adler?

I just came back from D.C. I was there co-hosting the Anti-defamation League’s Concert Against Hate, all about people who have been bullied, or stood up for their rights or the rights of others, against people who have been ignorant. And I shot the It Gets Better thing. But right now I’m just really focusing on this character. It’s such a role, such a bear of a character to tackle, that I’m kind of just putting my energy into that. And then using the downtime to use the platform of Glee to try to make a difference, and try to get some good words out there in the world.

If and when Glee ever slows down, I’d like to pursue films, indie films. I have one movie coming out. It’s called Wolf Town. It’s a horror film, which I shot between the first and second seasons of Glee.

I look forward to seeing how this all plays out—especially the singing and dancing.